Language is not an abstract construction of the learned, or of dictionary makers, but is something arising out of the work, needs, ties, joys, affections, tastes, of long generations of humanity, and has its bases broad and low, close to the ground. Quote from Noah Webster, US writer & lexicographer (10/16/1758 – 05/28/1843)

A total solar eclipse will occur on August 2, 2027. The path of the eclipse will pass over all the countries of north Africa and the middle east. It will not be seen as a full eclipse in the Holy Land, but will be viewable in Mecca. Some have seen this day as the day of the Great Earthquake that splits the Mount of Olives. http://www.august2nd2027.com/

... the mountain of the Lord’s temple will be established as the highest of the mountains;
it will be exalted above the hills, and peoples will stream to it ....

... {but} for now you must leave the city to camp in the open field.
You will go to Babylon;
{but} there you will be rescued.
There the Lord will redeem you out of the hand of your enemies ....
see Micah 4:1-5:1

Micah also rebuked his government, because of its dishonesty in the marketplace and corruption in its officials. While he prophesied destruction, Micah also told them what the LORD required of them:

He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God? — Micah 6:8

Micah'is prophetic service began around the year 778 B.C. and continued for almost 50 years under the kings of Judah: Jotham, Ahaz, and Righteous Hezekiah (721-691 B.C. - August 28th). He is commemorated with the other minor prophets in the Calendar of Saints (Armenian Apostolic Church) on July 31st. In the Eastern Orthodox Church he is commemorated twice in the year. The first feast day is January 5 (for those churches which follow the traditional Julian Calendar, January 5th currently falls on January 18th of the modern Gregorian Calendar). Because January 5th is also the Eve of the Epiphany, his major celebration is on August 14th (which is also the forefeast of the Dormition (the death of Mary-her falling asleep in the Lord).

August 2, 216BC:Hannibal Barca of Carthage won his greatest victory over the Romans at Cannæ. Hannibal had seized a grain depot in the small village of Cannæ hoping to lure the Roman forces into battle. Having crossed over the Alps, Hannibal had defeated the Romans at the Trebia River and also at Lake Trasimene. Therefore, the Romans were unwilling to commit any large force into attacking Hannibal. However, Hannibal‘s spies had learned two Roman consuls shared command of the legions and attempted to goad the more impetuous of the two into battle. For most of the next century Rome and Carthage would fight four wars, known as the Punic Wars. The capital city of Carthage would be destroyed and northern Africa would become a Roman Province. http://www.herodote.net/264_a_146_avant_JC-synthese-134.php -- Map here toward the bottom of the page

Utica, the Punic city which changed loyalties at the beginning of the siege of Carthage 70 years later, became the capital of the Roman province of Africa when Carthage was systematically burned. A century later, the site of Carthage was rebuilt as a Roman city by Julius Caesar, and would later become one of the main cities of Roman Africa by the time of the Empire. The area had become the breadbasket of Rome. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Punic_War

August 2nd: This date would see the first general civil war break out in France (the Jacquerie 1358); Henri III, is assassinated by Jacques Clément (stabbed August 1, 1589); Napoléon Bonaparte becomes Consul for Life (1802) and l'Empire has begun. England becomes the protector of Egypt in 1882; the first day of hostilities takes place along the border (at Belfort) between France and Germany (1914) and the Allies set the new German borders after the end of World War II at Potsdam (1945).

August 3, 1492: Christopher Columbus sets sail from Spain looking for the Indies. In part driven by a quest for gold and glory, he also saw himself as a missionary. Columbus departed Palos, Spain, in the Santa Maria, with the Pinta and the Nina on a voyage that would take him to the present-day Americas. A forgotten Italian, Christopher Columbus, died in Spain at age 55. Columbus, then impoverished, initially was interred within the monastery at Valladolid. Reports that he stopped moving after his demise are greatly exaggerated. More HERE

August 3, 1914: Today marks the third day of the European Great War, known better today as World War I, which began with the assassination of the Archduke of the Empire of Austria-Hungry at Sarajevo on June 28th by a Serbian. This drew Russia into the fray as a fellow-slavic nation coming to the aid of another. Germany soon would declare war on Russia on August 1st and on France on the 3rd. Later declarations and hostilities would follow http://www.herodote.net/histoire08010.htm. Independence for the Balken states had ended. Once separate kingdoms, after World War I were merged into a newly formed Yugoslavia. It was not until the collapse of the Soviet Union and the period of chaos that followed, that some of the nations reemerged.

Hostilities broke out near Belfort on August 2nd; but, Germany attacked through neutral Belgium (as it did again in 1939). The French had prepared for a traditional assault through the Ardennes and Lorraine. In a few weeks, hundreds of thousands lay dead. In a month, the French capital was moved from Paris to Bordeaux as the Germans now threatened the city of light.

August 5, 642: King Oswald's death came in battle. The pagan ruler, Penda of Mercia (a kingdom in what is today the English Midlands), who had earlier defeated Edwin, raised an army and met Oswald with overwhelming forces. Surrounded by enemies, Oswald prayed one last prayer -- for God's mercy on the souls of his soldiers. He was considered a martyr because he died at the hand of a pagan while defending a Christian nation. He was named a Saint, set-apart for God's work. See our article on Saint Aidan below. Penda was the last great pagan warrior-king among the Anglo-Saxons. Higham wrote that his destruction sounded the death-knell of English paganism as a political ideology and public religion. After Penda's death, the Mercian tribes were converted to Christianity, and all three of Penda's reigning sons ruled as Christians. Five daughters became Saintes.
http://www.earlybritishkingdoms.com/adversaries/bios/penda.html.

August 5, 1789: Full of expectation, elected members of the government of a now United States were in session and working in a hot, muggy New York City. For the first time, the Senate refused to confirm a presidential appointee, ignoring the budding concept of senatorial courtesy, The first US President, George Washington, had nominated Benjamin Fishbourn to the post of Naval Officer for the Port of Savannah without clearing his choice with Georgia's two senators. Favoring another candidate, who was a member of their own political circle, these two men engineered Officer Fishbourn's rejection. Two days later, the Washington conveyed his irritation to the Senate. Permit me to submit to your consideration whether on occasions where the propriety of Nominations appear questionable to you, it would not be expedient to communicate that circumstance to me, and thereby avail yourselves of the information which led me to make them, and which I would with pleasure lay before you.http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/e-resources/ebooks/records/824.html

Contemporaneously, the reports of savage violence that broke out in France during July, 1789, shocked Thomas Jefferson, who was at his post as the American representative to France; but, reactionary conflict did not undermine his belief in the essential rightness of the cause or the ultimate triumph of its progressive principles. He remained optimistic about the prospect for an enduring and peaceful political settlement. He seemed oblivious (or at least silent) to the deep, irreconcilable and anti-religious class hatred that drove the mobs. Repeatedly, Jefferson expressed a belief that the worst of the slaughter had passed. The future looked bright to him. He wrote on August 5, 1789, the National Assembly [of popular representatives] are wise, firm and moderate. They will establish the English constitution, purged of its numerous and capital defects. Jefferson also began to express his belief in the benefits of periodic revolutions -- at generational intervals of about 19 years. http://www.futurecasts.com/Ellis, Jefferson, American Sphinx.htm

According to the US Treasury, also on this date (August 5, 1789), the brigantine Persis, which arrived at the port of New York from Leghorn, Italy (Livorno is a port city astride the Ligurian Sea on the western edge of Tuscany), had the honour of being the first vessel to be affected by the Tariff Act of July 4, 1789. The duty collected amounted to $774.71 (which was worth about 50 ounces in gold coin). The US Customs Service virtually provided the country its only direct source revenue from 1789 to 1913, until the 16th Amendment to the US Constitution, the reason for the income tax being a popular revenue source today.

The land of Persis was located in what is now southern Iran. Persians settled the area as early as the 8th century B.C. Alexander the Great gained control of Persis, and after his death it became part of the Seleucid Kingdom. About 290 B.C. Persis regained independence. Coinage during this period reflected Greek heritage, but inscriptions were in Aramaic script. Sometime between c. 250 and 223 B.C., the Seleucids took control once more. King Mithradates II later incorporated Persis as a sub-kingdom of Parthia. Under Parthian domination, the coins and depicted rulers assumed a Parthian style. The last King of Persis, Artaxerxes (Artâkhshatra-Ardshir), defeated the Parthians in the 3rd century AD and founded the Sassanian Empire. He also established Zoroastrianism as the state religion. http://www.forumancientcoins.com/Roman-Coins.asp?e=Kingdom_of_Persis&par=775&pos=1&target=54 He should not be confused with Artaxerxes (meaning "righteous ruler") who was a Persian king who initially obstructed the rebuilding of the Temple at Jerusalem (Ezra 4:7). Fourteen years later, he permitted Nehemiah to return and rebuild Jerusalem.

About a week after His sojourn in Cæsarea Philippi, Jesus took with him Peter and James and John and led them to a high mountain apart, where He was transformed before their eyes. Saints Matthew and Mark express this phenomenon by the word metemorphothe, which the Latin Vulgate renders as transfiguratus est. The Synoptic gospels more clearly explain the full meaning of the word by adding his face did shine as the sun and his garments became white as snow, according to the Vulgate, or as light, according to the original Greek text -- the luminosity coming from within -- a glimpse of the divine nature.

In the fourth century AD, Mount Thabor, the acknowledged as the scene of Christ's Transfiguration (near Nazereth), became a place of pilgrimage and was surmounted by a basilica and several churches and chapels. In 1101 the Benedictine monks rebuilt these edifices and constructed a fortified abbey, later destroyed the Saracens (1187). They in turn built (1210-12) a large fortress that the Crusaders attacked in vain (1217). The plateau of Mount Thabor is now occupied by Franciscans and Schismatic Greek monks. http://home.newadvent.org/cathen/14551a.htm

August 7, 1928: The vanishing dollar, or more correctly, the new shrinking bill. Paper money, one third smaller than previous issues, began to be released by the U.S. Treasury Department. The $1 denomination of 1928 would be worth about $11-20 in terms of today's purchasing power. A handful ($100) in common circulated US Gold Coins in 1928 would be worth at least 70 times as much ($7000) in 2014.

August 8, 1792:If peace cannot be maintained with honor, it is no longer peace. -- Lord John Russell
for whom the Russell Square was named. For those of you who have forgotten, that was where one of the London bombs went off on July 7, 2005. John Russell was born on August 8, 1792, the third son of the sixth Duke of Bedford. Russell went to the Westminster School and the University of Edinburgh. As prime minister, his government's efforts to prevent widespread starvation from the Irish potato famine of 1846-1847 were ineffective. During this first term (1846-1852), he helped pass legislation limiting working hours in factories in the Factory Act of 1847, and was responsible for the passing of the Public Health Act of 1848. This ministry also ended restrictions on colonial trade by repealing the Navigation Acts in 1849. http://www.victorianweb.org/history/pms/russell.html

August 8, 1945: President Truman signed the United Nations Charter; in the meantime, the Soviet Union had declared war against Imperial Japan and launched the Manchurian Strategic Offensive (Манчжурская стратегическая наступательная операция - Operation August Storm as it is called in the US) against the Japanese Imperial forces occupying Northeast China. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_invasion_of_Manchuria While the Soviets established a communist-style peoples' republic in North Korea (which continues to plague us today), the U.S had devastated Hiroshima on August 6th: A auspicious beginning to the UN's peacekeeping mission.

August 9-near Paris, 1754:Pierre Charles L’Enfant, an architect, engineer, American Revolutionary War officer, was born at Anet (near Dreux) in the province of Eure-et-Loir. Today's chief attraction there is the Château d'Anet was built in the middle of the 16th century by Henry II. for Diana of Poitiers. Near it is the plain of Ivry-la-Bataille, where soon to be King Henry IV defeated the armies of the Catholic League on March 14, 1590. But I digress.

L’Enfant planned the layout of the District of Columbia (City of Washington, the Nation's Capital). L'Enfant was wounded while leading troops in the attack on British-held Savannah (9 October 1779). He was taken to Charleston, S.C. to recover. Leaving his sick-bed, L'Enfant participated in the defense of the city during the British siege in 1780. He was taken prisoner when the city surrendered on 12 May 1780. L'Enfant was not released until Rochambeau arranged for his exchange in January 1782. Returning to Philadelphia in May 1782, l'Enfant was breveted Major in the American Army. http://xenophongroup.com/mcjoynt/volunt.htm He died June 14, 1825, and is now buried in Arlington National Cemetery (1909). http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/l-enfant.htm

On August 9, 1945, as was the usual practice, Catholic and Protestant chaplains blessed the crew of an airplane just before it took off. This aircraft left from Tinian Island carrying a bomb named Little Boy. The target was Kokoro on the Japanese mainland. The plane arrived over Kokoro, but fog prevented the crew from clearly seeing the target. The plane moved on to the secondary target, Nagasaki. The city also experienced fog that morning, but a brief clearing allowed the crew to zero in on the most distinct building in town, a Catholic Cathedral.

Christianity took hold in Japan during the age of European exploration. That period came to an abrupt, bloody end. On July 25, 1587, Japanese Shogun, Hideyoshi, banned Christianity and ordered all European Christians to leave. The government followed-up the edict with executions, including a heinous massacre at Nagasaki (1597). It took other actions which ended western contact; but, it seems that during more than 250 years without priests or outside Christian communication (1600-1865), the Japanese Christian community became a vital remnant in Nagasaki of 30,000 baptized believers. Japanese society had remained unaware of their existence.

When news spread about these Kakure Kirihitan, after Admiral Perry opened Japan to trade, there was another persecution by the government, but it was soon stilled by pressure from the West. In 1894, the Japanese Christians for the first time had permission to build a church. They chose a site on the hill in Nagasaki where the martyrs of the original Nagasaki community had been crucified in 1597. After 23 years of building, Urakami Tenshudo Cathedral was dedicated in 1917. fromhttp://www.criticalconcern.com/hinder_not_the_children.htm

... there is a sound of crying, weeping and bitter sorrow;Rachel weeping for her children;she will not be comforted because they are no more [Jeremiah 31:15].

Could the bombing of Nagasaki have been avoided? Today, historians have all the secret intercepts and US analyses that affected this decision. After Hiroshima, the Japanese military leaders did not see their situation as hopeless. They were not seeking to surrender unconditionally, but pursuing a negotiated end to the war that would preserve as much power as possible. Even the next day, after Nagasaki was demolished, August 10th, Japan announced its willingness to surrender to Allies; but it still clung to its proviso that the sovereign status of the nation and Emperor Hirohito remain unchanged. This old order had intended to fight on, thinking that an invasion (tentatively planned for November against Kyushu) would have too high a casualty rate for the American public. It was only then that the Emperor personally intervened. In face of mounting Japanese civilian losses, further slaughter became unthinkable. Moreover, in counterbalance, some estimates today judge that between one-quarter and one-half million civilians were dying each month outside Japan from the effects of Japanese occupation. Even after his intervention, an aborted military coup failed the night before Hirohito announced his decision to his people. See Frank, Richard B. Why Truman Dropped the Bomb, The Weekly Standard, August 8, 2005 [Vol.10 #44] pp. 20-24.

Recent information suggests that Japan was the second nation to become a nuclear power !!! A few days before the end of the War the Japanese exploded a small atomic device on a small island in what is today North Korea. That area is off limits today. It is reported that the bomb factory was located in the same country, that it was dismantled by the Russians in 1945 and production equipment taken to the Soviet Union. See alsohttp://www.fortfreedom.org/w08.htm One more item to consider:

During the {6 week} Nanking Massacre {1937}, the Japanese committed a litany of atrocities against innocent civilians, including mass execution, raping, looting, and burning. It is impossible to keep a detailed account of all of these crimes. However, from the scale and the nature of these crimes as documented by survivors and the diaries of the Japanese militarists, the chilling evidence of this historical tragedy is indisputable. http://prion.bchs.uh.edu/~zzhang/1/Nanking_Massacre/history.html (Emperor knew all about this)

August 10, 70: Military forces of the Roman Empire, sent by the Emperor (Titus Flavius Vespasianus) to put down a rebellion in the Holy Land, break through the walls of the City of Jerusalem and destroy the Temple. Some have said that the event occurred on the same day of the year as an earlier destruction of Solomon's Temple by Babylonians in 586BC. The rebellion had begun during the last years of Nero's reign, and it was not until Vespasian could restore order at home that he could turn his attention back east. It is estimated that as many as one million Jews died in the Great Revolt against Rome. When people today speak of the almost two-thousand-year span of Jewish homelessness and exile, they are dating it from the failure of the revolt and the destruction of the Temple.

{Vespasian's general and later Rome's next emperor} Titus retired into the tower of Antonia, and resolved to storm the temple the next day, early in the morning, with his whole army, and to encamp round about the holy house; but, as for that house, God had for certain long ago doomed it to the fire; and now that fatal day was come, according to the revolution of ages; it was the tenth day of the month Lous [Av], upon which it was formerly burnt by the king of Babylon.

* * *

{One may} comfort himself with this thought, that it was fate that decreed it to be, which is inevitable, both as to living creatures and about works and places also. However, one cannot but wonder at the accuracy of this period thereto relating; for the same month and day were now observed, as I said before, wherein the holy house was burned formerly by the Babylonians. [Flavius Josephus, Wars of the Jews, The Complete Works of Josephus {translated by William Whiston}, (Grand Rapids: Kregel Publications, 1960), pp 580-581.] -- see links HERE

Is it not true that history has seen played out few original stories, but has suffered many, many copies: Pundits, Prophets and Politicians shouting, PEACE, PEACE, when there can be no peace; assuring all of prosperity, plenty of good things and a continued possession of property, when in a short time, none of these promises should prevail; but, sudden, utter destruction would come upon them [from 1 Thessalonians 5:3].

Jeremiah 8:11 -- They dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious. Peace, peace, they say, when there can be no peace. {When all is sound in a nation's moral state of being, so all will be peace regarding its political well-being (cf. Jer 4:10; 8:11; 14:13; 23:17; Eze 13:5, 10; 22:28)}.

Jeremiah 14:13 -- But I said, "Alas, Sovereign LORD! The prophets keep telling them, You will not see the sword or suffer famine. Indeed, I will give you lasting peace in this place."

Ezekiel 13:10 -- Because they lead my people astray, saying, Peace, when there is no peace, and because, when a flimsy wall is built, they cover it with whitewash {perhaps an allusion to whitewashed tombs as well as the cover-up so prevalent in contemporary politics of the time}

The date was August 10th or 29th. The Temple of Jerusalem burned after a nine-month Roman siege. The Temple was destroyed by Rome’s 10th Legion, the Jews in that place were mostly slaughtered, the rest were exiled and the whole city destroyed (September 1st -- later it was rebuilt as a Roman town).

. . . not one stone shall be left here upon another, that shall not be thrown down.More HERE

"On the tenth day of the fifth month, which was in the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan the captain of the bodyguard, who was in the service of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem. And he burned the house of the Lord [the Temple of Solomon], the king's house, and all the houses of Jerusalem; even every large house he burned with fire [Jeremiah 52:12-13]."

A few years after the death of Nero, the Emperor Vespasian launched the construction of a huge 50,000-seat amphitheater at the site of the lake and gardens of the former emperor. Its official name, the Flavian Amphitheatre (after the family name of Vespasian) was soon replaced in popular usage by the Colosseum (in Latin, the Colossus), probably because of the proximity of the gigantic statue of Nero/Apollo. The name stuck even after the removal of this large object. The colosseum was built from the spoils of the destruction of Jerusalem. A dedicatory inscription was discovered in 2001 which reads, Imp T. Caes. Vespasianus Aug. Ampitheatrum Novum Ex Manubis Fieri Iussit. This translates to “The Emperor Caesar Vespasian Augustus had this new amphitheater erected with the spoils of war” -- referring to the destruction of Jerusalem by Vespasian's son, Titus, who issued this coin. http://www.aucmcoins.com/articles/au-capital-acquires-roman-colosseum-sestertius/

August 10, 843 -- The first Treaty of Verdun: Brothers Lotharius I, Louis le Germanique and Charles le Chauve, all children of Charlemagne, divide his kingdom, consisting of eastern France, western Germany and points in between. This division would result in a European wars for the next 1100 plus years. For example look at what happened to Alsace and places like Belfort.

The Carolingians, under
Pepin's son, Charlemagne, had annexed all of southern Germany and the lands in the north and northeast, held by the Saxons. Charlemagne, crowned emperor in 800AD by Pope Leo III, patterned his court after the late Roman Empire. He ruled his Holy Roman Empire from Aachen (the French still call the city Aix-la-Chapelle), which is today in Germany, close by the Dutch Border. The official work of his court was done in Latin; however, the day - to - day language (in the east) congealed into what has evolved into Hoch Deutsch today. Why not French? Because, upon his death the empire split into three kingdoms. The west eventually became France and the romantic (ne c'est pas) language base of Latin prevailed. Indeed, even in 800AD the language between the western and the eastern portions of the empire showed marked differences. So much so, that the treaty named after Virodunensis (Verdun) in 843AD had to be written in two languages.

Otto I, an old-Saxon chief, emerged as the King of East Francia by 962AD. He became the leader of the Holy Roman Empire {Römischen Reich}, an official designation {Rede} which remained in use, and in German hands, for another nine centuries. Toward the end of that time period, the words Reich, Reiches or Reichs were used without any other direct attributes, still signifying however, a continuation of the empire from the previous Millennium. Frankfurt became the traditional site for electing and crowning emperors of the German Reich.

August 10, 1755: Under the orders of Charles Lawrence, and in violation of a treaty, Britain begins to forcibly deport the Acadians from Nova Scotia to its thirteen Colonies to the south. Interestingly, this is also the feast day of Saint Lawrence (Laurentius). He became one of the seven deacons of ancient Rome serving under Pope Sixtus II, who were martyred during the persecution of Valerian in 258. Lawrence is believed to have been born in Spain, at Huesca, a town in Aragon near the foot of the Pyrenees. At the beginning of the month of August, 258, the emperor Valerian issued an edict commanding that all bishops, priests, and deacons should immediately be put to death.

Sixtus was captured on August 6, 258, at the cemetery of Saint Callixtus, while celebrating the liturgy. His execution and that of his staff followed soon after. According to Catholic tradition, Laurentius was the final martyr, left alive to turn over the Churches' riches to the authorities. Lawrence hid or gave it all away. The Holy Grail is a principal relic that Lawrence sent to his parents in northern Aragon. The family eventually entrusted the sacred chalice to the monastery of San Juan de la Peña, which became core of spiritual strength for the emerging kingdom of Aragon. While the Holy Chalice's exact journey through the centuries is well-disputed, it is generally accepted that the chalice he sent has been venerated and preserved by a number of monks and monasteries through the ages. Today the Holy Grail is venerated in a special chapel in the Catholic Cathedral of Valencia, Spain.

August 10, 1864: The artillery bombardment of Atlanta escalated. At 5 o'clock in the afternoon Union batteries began firing new rifled cannon. The range and accuracy of the rifled cannon had startled the world. A 30-pounder (4.2-inch) Parrott had an amazing carry of 8,453 yards with 80-pound hollow shot; the notorious Swamp Angel that fired on Charleston in 1863 was a 200-pounder Parrott mounted in the marsh 7,000 yards from the city. But ironically, despite the fire power, rifles and smoothbores could destroy only bricks and mortar, not earthworks. ARTILLERY THROUGH THE AGES

In Atlanta each Union weapon fired every five minutes. After Sherman complained about not hearing the guns fire, the frequency of shelling increased. That night, Sherman wrote General Howard, saying: Let us destroy Atlanta and make it a desolation. {cf Ezekiel 35: 1-9 (Edom to be destroyed)} In the meantime, even as the sword of destruction seemed suspended over the city, elsewhere life went on. For instance, in Saint Francis' city, Samuel Clemens was observing: A runaway buggy (at any rate the horse attached to it was running away and the buggy was taking a good deal of interest in it) came into collision with a dray, yesterday, in Montgomery street, and the dray was not damaged any to speak of.San Francisco Daily Morning Call

August 11th:
In 2015 at the Tour de France on July 11th the finish line was the city of Mûr-de-BRETAGNE, Côtes d'Armor, région Bretagne, en France - Pictured is the Chapelle du Sainte Suzanne. The name Susanna occurs in the Book of Daniel, but neither she nor Daniel are considered Saints. Susanna also was the name of a disciple who financially supported Christ during his life (listed in Chapter 8 of Luke). The name Susanna means "Lily" -- of this Susanna nothing further is known. She may have been a saint, but is not recognized as a Sainte.

The most likely candidate is Sainte Susanna, virgin and martyr, who is said to have been the daughter of Saint Gabinus of Rome. According to the recounting of her acts, the Romans beheaded Sainte Susanna in about the year 295, at the command of Diocletian. She died at her father's house, which was turned into a church, together with the adjoining one belonging to her uncle, the prefect Caius or, according to other accounts, Pope Caius. The church became known as Sancta Susanna ad duas domos {in a house (domus ecclesiæ)}. Susanna is mentioned in the Roman Martyrology for the 11th of August (her feast day) in the following terms: "At Rome, commemoration of Saint Susanna, in whose name, which was mentioned among the martyrs in ancient lists, the basilica of the titular church of Gaius at the Baths of Diocletian was dedicated to God in the sixth century (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Susanna)." She has been removed from the list of Saints and Saintes since 1969 because of the semi-legendary character of the acts of her martyrdom.

Her church in Rome has served as the national parish for residents of Rome from the United States since that was established at Sancta Susanna in 1921 by the Paulist Fathers. They have continued to serve at that church since then. Entombed in the church are five early church martyrs and saints: Susanna, her father Gabinus, Saint Felicitas of Rome, Pope Saint Eleuterus, and Genesius of Rome.

August 11, 1802 -- Missa "Loquébar:" Today is the traditional historical feast of Saint Philomena. The tomb of this virgin martyr was unknown until found in 1802 in the Roman catacombs. The Providence of many miracles made the rediscovery of Saint Philomena’s remains famous. The cult of the young Sainte spread with an extraordinary rapidity. She has received such exceptional homage that she can be placed in the first ranks of the virgin martyrs whom the Church venerates. The Holy Curé of Ars, Saint John Mary Vianney, whose feast is celebrated two days previous called her his dear little Saint and performed wonders, invoking her name. http://www.dailycatholic.org/issue/06Aug/aug11phi.htm

The feast day of Bishop, Martyr and Saint Alexander, the charcoal maker, also is celebrated on August 11th. This is appropriate considering what Sherman was doing in Atlanta on this day in 1864. St. Alexander suffered death by fire in the persecution of Trajan Decius. A total war kind of guy at home, Decius proved himself less than apt when dealing with Rome's Germanic foes, than with the Christians whom he roasted. His death in battle may have appeared heroic, but it was unnecessary and his final campaign unsuccessful. This best sums up Decius Trajan's reign. http://www.roman-emperors.org/decius.htm

August 11, 1789: France was in the midst of full redesign. On this date the Decree of the National Assembly Abolishing the Feudal System, was formally issued (approved during the famous night session of 4–5 August 1789). The National Assembly also decreed that a medal be struck in memory of the recent grave and important deliberations for the welfare of France, and that a Te Deum should be chanted in gratitude in all the parishes and the churches of France. It also solemnly proclaimed the King, Louis XVI, the Restorer of French Liberty, by reason of his accession to its actions. On the same date Marat, the media relations arm of the la Révolution française, opened his first freedom advisor, the moniteur patriotique [à Paris], a friend of some of the people he surely was, a martyr he would become in less than 4 years.

August 13, 1961: The German city of Berlin became permanently divided. Soviet forces in East Germany, sealed off the open border, between the city's eastern and western sectors, in order to halt the growing flight of refugees, leaving the oppression and misery of the east. Two days later, work began on the Berlin Wall. The wall would remain until November 9, 1989. Read the account at: http://members.tripod.com/~Nevermore/wall.html The nation dedicated a monument to the 255 people who died crossing the Berlin Wall on August 13, 1998 {found at the corner of Ackerstraße and Bernauer Straße}.

August 14, 1784: The Russian Empire invades what we today call Alaska. Grigori Shelekhov, a Russian fur trader, establishes the premier Russian settlement. Shelekhov's company was the nucleus for the Russian-American Company, which was granted a monopoly several years after his death (a colonial trading company, chartered by Czar Paul I in 1799). The primary shareholders were members of the Czarist family. The charter granted the sole trading privileges in Russian America, which included the Aleutian Islands, Alaska, and the territory down to 55° N lat. (a second charter, granted in 1821, extended its domain to 51°).

"... in 1788 on July 11th, here on Kodiak Island, we had a big earthquake and some thought that the earth would collapse. The earthquake was so strong that one could not stand on his feet. We did not have time to recover from this earthquake when a flood came from the sea. We had a deluge in our harbor, and at that time every man was looking for a safe place to save his life. The flood did a lot of damage. First, my barabora (half sunken hut) was flooded and the merchandise was carried away as were other small structures and the palisade. In your garden all of the soil and vegetation were washed entirely away and at this place water brought in gravel and dug holes in the ground. The raise of the level of water was almost up to the windows in your room. However, the flood lasted only for a very short time, there were two large waves and the rest of them were minor. After this the earth was shaking every day for a month or longer. It was shaking two or three times a day and even more often. Since the time of the earthquake, our place near the harbor has subsided." http://wcatwc.arh.noaa.gov/web_tsus/17880721/narrative1.htm

Fort Ross was founded in 1812 by the Russian-American Company (11 miles northwest of today's town of Jenner on the Sonoma Coast), The Russian-American Company supported a number of outposts, mostly in Alaska. But the company's ships made frequent forays south -- sometimes as far as Baja California -- in search of sea otter, seal and sea lion pelts. Fort Ross served as a staging area for sea hunts, as well as a source of food stuffs for the Alaska settlements. The Fort Ross outpost was closed in 1841 and sold to John Sutter (who built a mill one day). Thus, one might say the Russians were sitting on a gold mine and failed to notice it. http://www.athanasius.com/camission/ft_ross.htm

The chronicles of the Carolingian dynasty of the Francs (Eginhard: Vita Caroli Magni) merely report that the Basques pushed aside some rear-guard defenses in mid-August 778AD. Charles, King of the Francs, had not become Charles the Great (Charlemagne), Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire (Christmas 800AD). He was in Spain for political reasons; his aims were not total liberation, but only to help remove an unfriendly emir. The Christians of Spain, as in any Moslem country, had protégé status (dhimmi in Arabic), which obligated them to pay heavy taxes; but, there was little sympathy for open rebellion against all the foreign occupiers (the Moslems had been there only for about 70 years). Conditions changed and pressure on the German border (pesky Saxons) caused Charles to leave through a pass in the Pyrénées near Roncesvalles. Some of the Basques take advantage of the situation and plundered a supply column in the rearguard of the army. Three hundred years later the troubadors have perfected an epic poem for this seemingly small event in French history. Although apparently fruitless, the intervention of Charles in Spain begins the Reconquista, the reconquest of the Iberic peninsula by the Christian faith. http://www.herodote.net/07780815.htm

Ten snow-white mules then ordered Marsilies,
90 Gifts of a King, the King of Suatilie.
Bridled with gold, saddled in silver clear;
Mounted them those that should the message speak,
In their right hands were olive-branches green.
Came they to Charles, that holds all France in fee,
95 Yet cannot guard himself from treachery.
http://fxylib.znufe.edu.cn/book/shishi/lachansonderoland/01.htm

The Roncevaux pass on the border in Spanish Navarre is also on the important Compostelle pilgrimage route (chemin de Saint-Jacques-de-Compostelle). The Suèves, Vandales, Wisigoths et Alains were there in the 5th century, too, seeking their prey as they entered into the Valle Arce. http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Col_de_Roncevaux

Le 15 août: In a strange twist of events a Corsican named Napoleone Buonaparte was born nearly a 1000 years later in 1769. Also on the same date in 1057, Macbeth, King of Scotland, was slain at the Battle of Lumphanan, by Malcolm Canmore. Scotish King Duncan I had been killed in 1040 by Macbeth, one of his thanes. Duncan had ruled for 17 years. Macbeth, in turn, was killed by Duncan's son, Malcolm after 17 years. Macbeth, made famous by Shakespeare, lived in Angus County, Scotland at a time of change in the British Isles - Norman rule. Given at Arbroath Abbey in Angus, on the sixth day of April 1320, the Declaration of Arbroath was seminal in its eloquent plea for the liberty of man. It affirmed Scotland's Nobles' allegiance to Robert the Bruce as their ruler and proclaimed the right of the Scottish nation to self-determination, contrary to recent history. Lantern of the North, the Elgin Cathedral, in MacBeth's homeland -- Moray Scotland.

But MacBeth lived nearly 300 years before that time at Glamis Castle. In 1372 the Glamis estate was granted to John Lyon for his services to Robert II, the first Stewart King of Scots. Four years later, Lyon married the King's daughter and was subsequently knighted. After his father was murdered, the second Sir John Lyon inherited Glamis. He married the great granddaughter of Robert II and began building the current structure, which has been much remodeled since then. The mother of the present English Queen was born and raised at Glamis. http://www.theheritagetrail.co.uk/

August 15th became "V-J Day" for the Allies in 1945, a day after Japan agreed to surrender unconditionally. A Woodstock Music and Art Fair opened in upstate New York on this day in 1969. Some 400,000 plus persons gathered at Max Yasgur’s dairy farm in the Bethel hamlet of White Lake, N.Y. to listen to some music from Joan Baez; Country Joe MacDonald and the Fish; Crosby, Stills and Nash {sans Young}; the Creedence Clearwater Revival; Grateful Dead; The Jimi Hendrix Experience; the Jefferson Airplane; Big Brother and the Holding Company featuring Janis Joplin; Santana; Canned Heat; the Who and others, like Ten Years After, whose American debut occurred there.

And 10 Years Before: HYDE PARK, NY -- The other day the Peiping Radio broadcast a statement calling for the abolition of all U.S. military bases in Laos, and it is discouraging and unfortunate that such misleading information should be spread.

Our government assures us that we have no military bases in Laos. Laos, however, is allied in the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization with France, which has an air base at Seno in Central Laos. And there is only a small caretaker group of French troops there. We do have, I understand, some specialists for training purposes to help train the Laos army.

But, according to another story which I read, the troubles that have broken out in Laos are caused by the troops of a young fellow-traveler prince whom North Vietnam is supporting.

This is all so far away that it is difficult to know what is truthful and what is not. And, of course, it is easy for the United States and the Soviet Union and Peiping governments to accuse each other of inciting the difficulties that arise between different factions within Laos.

One can only hope that the Laotians can work out their difficulties and concentrate primarily on preserving their own liberties, which are threatened by their own inner division more than by any outside desire to control their country.

August 15, 1938: Romans-sur-Isère / Romans d'Isèra rests the heart of the rolling hills of the Département of Drôme (au cœur de la Drôme des Collines à la proximité de la gare Valence-TGV) retains its notoriety because of its architecture. The Collégiale Saint-Barnard comes to mind, along with the town's many extant hôtels particuliers from the 15th and 16th centuries (associated with textiles) that blend italian renaissance and flamboyant gothic styles. Interestingly, the city has an extensive archives on its historical resources: http://www.archives-ville-romans.fr/. This Web-based Archives et Patrimoine de Romans is still under construction, but its many pictures, alone, are worth the visit.

Barnard was the bishop of Vienne en Isère, who founded Romans and an Abbey circa 837-8 (abbaye bénédictine), and the village gained promenance through the establishment of a collégiale there named after him. It remains a fine example of mixed Romanesque and Gothic architecture. In addition six much more modern windows by the artists Georg Ettl and Thomas Vitraux complement the structure with scenes from St. John's Apocalypse. http://www.pays-romans.org/romans.php Barnard was canonized in the 10th Century. The whole abbey was reconstructed several times after invasions and fires. The inside was redecorated several times, when ravaged by the excesses of the French Revolution and Wars of Religion. The Carolingian bishop Saint Bernard, not the one of Clairvaux, was venerated at Romans-sur-Isère and the site was the subject of pilgrimages during medieval times.

Romans sits south of Hauterives en Drôme and the Massif Vercors (the same mountain that rises next to Grenoble). It sits 18km north and east above Valence, where the Isère enters the Rhône River Valley. It was at Romans that the first bridge across the Isère was built (le « Pont Vieux » (1049)) to Bourg-de-Péage. In 1349 along with much of the rest of the area (Dauphiné), the city lost its independence, falling under the rule of the Dauphine (Traité de Romans), and accordingly the area was a hot bed during the revolution of anti-monarchy feelings. Romans was liberated by the Allies in August 1944; before that time it was a seat of resistance to the Vichy and German governments. Le Pont Vieux fut dynamité en 1940 et l’explosion souffla les vitraux de la collégiale. http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collégiale_Saint-Barnard -- Pictures here. L'église Notre-Dame de Lourdes de Romans-sur-Isère (Drôme) est l'œuvre de l'architecte François Béranger; construite en 1937 et inaugurée le 15 août 1938. Elle est de style gothique moderne.

The two markers from HHI point out some of the history, which tourists miss in all the traffic. The death of a Patriot Militiaman recounted at the right has its counterpoise on Dafuskie Isle, where a Tory family apparently lived. It was brother against brother, neighbor against neighbor in the closing War years on the coast in South Carolina as well as Georgia.

August 16, 1898: Gold was discovered at Bonanza Creek in Alaska, more specifically, the Klondike region of this US Territory. North to Alaska, the rush was on to strike it rich, a dream realized by just a few. The postcard to the left is one I got in Alaska in 1960. Click on it to view full-size.

In the same year, John Wayne would help portray the life and times of the men who went way up north, in a fairly light-hearted way. Featured in the film was a song by Johnny Horton, of the same name as the movie, which was his last single before death (peaked at #4 on the Pop Chart and #1 on the Country Billboard list).

Horton perished in a car wreck in November 1960, shortly after the release. Columbia Record Company distributed his greatest hits post-mortem in 1961. This compilation presented 13 of his more folk-oriented songs, rather than his country western contributions, including the now famous North to Alaska. For those of you new to his body of work, Johnny Horton Live at the Louisiana Hayride - (released 2006) is a recent compendium (of original performances that includes many of his country-style tunes. Big Sam left Seattle in the year of ninety-two, with George Pratt, his partner, and brother Billy too. They crossed the Yukon River and found the bonanza gold

, below that old white mountain, just a little southeast of Nome. The song was performed over the movie credits. Interestingly on this date in 2006, Google provides free wireless access to the World Wide Web for everyone living in its hometown, Mountain View -- a little nugget of California gold. http://www.clubic.com/ Read about some other Gold Rushes in the USA -- HERE.

August 17, 1969: Today is the death day of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (Ludwig Mies) in Chicago (born in Aachen, Germany). Van der Rohe was one of the leading architects of the early 20th century. He enrolled at age 15 as an apprentice to an architect in his home town. He is noted for his two desiderata, architectural integrity and structural honesty. Ludwig Mies pioneered the use of steel and glass in skyscrapers. In 1930 he was appointed director of the Bauhaus School in Dessau. It was he who closed the Bauhaus in 1933 before the Nazis could shut it down. In 1937 he immigrated to the United States. Mies settled in Chicago at the Illinois Institute of Technology (then called the Armour Institute). Some of his noted buildings are: the Lake Shore Drive Apartments in Chicago IL and the Seagram Building in New York City (1956-58). Later he designed the Bacardi Building in Mexico City (1961), the Federal Center in Chicago (1964), the Public Library in Washington DC (1967) and the Neu National Gallery in Berlin, Germany (1968).

August 17, 2013: "Ten Years After" plays at the Casino Rama in Ontario, Canada today on the anniversary of its debut in 1969 at a little music festival in Upstate New York. The late Alvin Lee (March 2013: http://www.kuow.org/post/alvin-lee-going-home-ten-years-after-guitarist-dies) led the group, whose performance the film "Woodstock" memorializes. Forty-four years later, the group appears with "Canned Heat" and several other groups this night.

August 18, 1587 (some say 17th): On Roanoke Island at the English colony, Ellinor and Ananias Dare became parents of a baby girl whom they name Virginia Dare, the first English child born on what is now Roanoke Island, N.C., then considered Walter Raleigh’s second settlement in Roanoke, Virginia. Virginia Dare, born to the daughter of John White, became the first child of English parents to be born on American soil. She and the other colonists would vanish without a trace. Much more can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_Dare.

August 18th: Today is the feast day of Saint Helena, the mother of Constantine the Great. http://missel.free.fr/Sanctoral/08/18.php In 327-328 Helena made a pilgrimage to the Middle-East to walk in the footsteps of Christ. She initiated the building of several Christian churches on sites she determined to be sacred according to trusted traditions of the area. During her journey she is credited by many for the discovery of the True Cross. This relic was venerated in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem by the end of the 340's. Helena died shortly after her journey. She was later made a saint in both the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic Churches because of her awesome discoveries, her piety and her widespread charity. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07202b.htm

August 19, 1812: Returning from a cruise off Canada, the USS Constitution, commanded by Captain Isaac Hull of the fledgling U.S. Navy, encountered HMS Guerriere led by British Captain Richard Dacre, about 750 miles from Boston Harbor. After an hour engagement, a battle that left 101 dead, the Guerriere was helpless in the water, smashed beyond salvage. Cap't. Dacre struck his colors, surrendered to Hull. In contrast, the USS Constitution had very little damage and only 14 casualties. The enemy's shells had seemed to bounce off its sides as if they were made of iron. The fight's outcome shocked the British Admiralty, while it gave comfort to Americans through the darker days of the War of 1812. http://www.schoonerman.com/iron.htm And so, Old Ironsides was named because of the nearly impenetrable strength of the Live Oak timber from Gascoigne Bluff in Georgia. The USS Constitution won more than 30 battles against the Barbary pirates off Africa’s coast.
http://www.gacoast.com/navigator/gascoigne.html

Overlooking the Frederica River, Gascoigne Bluff was a favorite Native American campground. In the 16th century a Franciscan monastery, San Buenaventura, was built near this site. During the American colonial era, the landing at the bluff became Georgia's first naval base and bears the name of the man, Gascoigne, who first surveyed the local coast for England. When the Spanish fleet sailed up from St. Augustine to attack Oglethorpe's settlement at Fort Frederica, they landed first at Gascoigne.

During the Plantation Era, sea island (long staple) cotton was shipped to ports around the world from the Hamilton Plantation dock at Gascoigne. Exports stopped during the War between the States, when the bluff became United States Navy Headquarters. In the years following that war, life at Gascoigne took on renewed vigor as a sawmill industry flourished on the riverbanks.

August 20, 573:Gregory of Tours was selected as the Bishop of that ancient town. Gregory's history of the Church in France (more specifically about Clovis and his successors, the Merovingian Franks) is considered one of the most well known primary sources of the time. http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/gregory-hist.asp -- a no-holds-barred compendium of the personalities and miracles of the time.

The name of Cæsarodonum (the hill of Cæsar) is first mentioned in the first century AD. This new settlement became the chief town of the Romanized Gauls called the Turones. In the fourth century, Saint Martin of Tours established the city as a center of learning that produced France's first historian, Gregory of Tours, only one hundred years later. Under the influence of Charlemagne during the eighth and ninth centuries, Tours remained one of the great intellectual cities of Europe. In the Middle Ages, Tours was recognized as an important center for the teaching of medicine (its school of surgery was founded by a guild of barbers in 1408). Puis capitale du royaume de France, Tours bénéficie d'une situation exceptionnelle au centre de la célèbre Vallée de la Loire, au cœur du Jardin de la France. http://www.tours-tourisme.fr/destinations/tours

Tuesday, August 20, 1991: This is the day officially recognized as that on which the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics collapsed, when more than 100,000 people rallied outside the Soviet Union's parliament building protesting the coup that deposed President Mikhail Gorbachev. Estonia reclaimed its independence and left the Soviet collective on this day, too. The Soviets had occupied Estonia occupied for more than 50 years. Interestingly (sadly), the heroes (martyrs) of this day and what they fought for, are all but forgotten 20 years later.

For those of you who enjoy irony, this is the same day that Milton's Paradise Lost was published in 1667, Leon Trotsky, an exiled Soviet revolutionary, was attacked on Stalin's orders (fatally wounded in Mexico City by an assassin's alpine ice-ax --it will take a day to die) and Czechoslovakia was invaded by Soviet led Warsaw Pact forces in 1968. The 200,000 Warsaw Pact troops, featuring about 5,000 tanks, invaded Czechoslovakia in order to end the political liberalization popularly known as the Prague Spring. Strangely enough, on Sunday August 20, 1882, Piotr Ilyitch Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture debuted in Moscow. On this day Arab forces led by Khalid bin Walid seize control of Syria and Palestine (Battle of Yarmuk 636AD) from the Roman forces in the East (Byzantine Empire), marking the first great wave of Muslim conquests that constituted a rapid advance of Islam outside the Arabian peninsula. Here is one for you to look up; on this day in history, a Canadian discovers buffalo from Manitoba.

August 21, 1741: Georg Friedrich Händel would go into seclusion at his home to begin writing an oratorio. He finished the composition 23 days later. He later conceded, to paraphrase an apostle: Whether I was in the body or out of the body when I wrote it, I know not.

The first audience to hear the oratorio Messiah lived in Dublin in 1742. The Irish gave what is reported to be the greatest ovation in the city's history. Some weeks later, London heard the work for the first time, and again it was a grand triumph. http://www.classicalarchives.com/composer/2669.html

Behold, I tell you a mystery;
We shall not all sleep; but we shall all be changed in a
moment,in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.

The trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall
be raised incorruptible,and we {all} shall be changed.
For this corruptible must put on incorruption,and
this mortal must put on immortality.

On March 23, 1743, the Messiah had its London premiere. King George II attended. In the middle of the Hallelujah Chorus (the last piece), the sovereign rose to his feet in appreciation ! The entire audience followed the example out of respect for the King. From the beginning came the custom of standing during the finale, Hallelujah. Now that's change in which we all can believe.

August 21, 1959: Statehood bills for Hawai'i were introduced into the U.S. Congress as early as 1919 by the non-voting delegates Hawai'i sent to the U.S. Congress. Additional bills were introduced in 1935, 1947 and 1950. In 1959, the U.S. Congress approved the statehood bill. This was followed by a referendum in which Hawai'i residents voted overwhelmingly in support of statehood (the ballot question was: Shall Hawaii immediately be admitted into the Union as a state ?), and on August 21, 1959 (the third Friday in August), President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed a proclamation making Hawai'i the 50th state. Good thing, too -- first last solar eclipse visible from the United States was in 1991 (and then only just from a portion of Hawai'i)

The solar eclipse that takes place on Monday, August 21, 2017, will be the next visible total eclipse of the Sun from a narrow corridor through the United States. The longest duration of totality will be 2 minutes 40 seconds in Christian County, Kentucky just northwest of Hopkinsville, Kentucky. A partial solar eclipse will be seen from the much broader path of the Moon's penumbra, including all of North America, northern South America, western Europe, and Africa. This eclipse will be part of the Saros cycle 145 that also produced an eclipse August 11, 1999.

August 22, 565:Celtic (Irish) missionary and abbot of Iona, Columba reportedly confronts the Loch Ness Monster. He becomes the first recorded historical observer of the creature. At the voice of the saint, the monster was terrified, wrote his biographer, and fled more quickly than if it had been pulled back with ropes.

In 1997 Great Britain issued special stamps for Saints Augustine of Canterbury and Columba of Iona. Royal Mail's Special Stamps Manager, Rosena Robson, said: The stamps celebrate two great saints who had a tremendous influence on shaping the Christian faith in Britain. This year will see a major pilgrimage following those early Christian missions, and it is appropriate that Royal Mail should be joining those celebrations with this Special Stamp issue.Information about the stamps is HERE.

August 22, 1787: A Silversmith, John Fitch, demonstrated his great device, the first successful one of its kind in the New Country. Never heard of him, you say. Have patience, we reply. He invented the steamboat. On this date he sailed the Perseverance, on the Delaware River to the delight of delegates of the Continental Congress. http://www.ulster.net/~hrmm/steamboats/dayton/steam2.html Twenty years later, Robert Fulton, of steamship folly fame, sailed into history on the Hudson River (August 17, 1807). I guess he had the New York City press behind him. Read about Georgia's first steam engine patent HERE

August 22, 1922 -- ¡ SÍ, se puede !: A thirty-one year old Irishman was murdered in ambush this day by former political allies, en route to his home in County Cork. On December 6, 1922, the Irish Constitution went into effect and the Irish Free State was officially proclaimed. One can argue that it was Michael Collins who achieved the goal of separation from England after hundreds of years, but he did not live to see his dream realised. President of the Irish Provisional Government and Commander-in-Chief of the Provisional Army, Collins knew well that he was a marked man by his support of a political first step away from Britain, when others wanted full and immediate independence.

Collins, arrested and sent to internment camps like many of the 1916 Easter Rising's participants, became a leading figure in the post-Rising Sinn Féin, a small nationalist party which the British government and the Irish media incorrectly blamed for the 1916 events. Negotiations with Great Britain resulted in an Anglo-Irish Treaty, which approved a new Irish dominion, named the "Irish Free State" (a literal translation from the Irish term Saorstát Éireann). A revolution broke out over the terms of the agreement. One of Collins' last public appearances involved the funeral for friend and fellow cabinet colleague, President Griffith. Within one week, Collins joined Griffith in Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin. fromhttp://www.reference.com/

Why is this important today, you may well ask? Collins remains in the public memory as the young man, barely aged thirty, who delivered a republic, then a lasting treaty, who inspired a generation and who tragically died before his time, just as his country stood on the threshold of independent self-government. Had he remained alive, perhaps many of the troubles that would come to plague Ireland during the next 80 years might have been lessened or avoided altogether. Collins' model for fighting a big power has remained, however, as a legacy that affects us today, either explicitly as with Israel's revolution against British rule, or implicitly in the tactics once used in Vietnam or even in Iraq to fight the allied forces.

August 23, 1784: At Jonesborough, upper East Tennessee settlers (in the first of two conventions that year) would declare their area (Washington, Greene and Sullivan Counties, today) independent of any other state (i.e. NC), naming the new area Franklin. The Continental Congress would reject the claim for statehood a year later, but the die was cast. http://www.geocities.com/ourmelungeons/amerricana.html Tennessee would become a territory in 1790 and the 16th state on June 1, 1796. A good history beginning with its roots as an area known as Watauga (Virginia) is found HERE.
see alsohttp://www.webroots.org/library/usahist/tcotos06.html As an interesting aside, it appears that some of Ulrich Zwingli's family first settled in Pennsylvania and Maryland (mid-18th Century), and later could be found in upper East Tennessee by the 1790's.

August 23, 1821: After 11 years of civil war, the Spanish Empire granted Mexico independence as a constitutional monarchy. Spanish Viceroy (and Lieutenant-General of the Armies of Spain), Don Juan de Ó'Donojú (O'Donoghue), signed the Treaty of Cordoba, which approved the plan. Don Agustín de Iturbide, First Chief of the Imperial Mexican Army (his family from the Basque region of Spain), represented Mexico. He would become the first monarch, Emperor Agustín I, on July 22, 1822. His reign was short-lived because political and financial instability continued to plague the newly independent Mexico. http://historicaltextarchive.com/sections.php?op=viewarticle&artid=540

August 23, 1859: The first air mail in the U.S. is carried in a balloon. John Wise and his balloon "the Jupitir" travelled from Lafayette, Indiana, to Crawfordsville, Indiana, carrying 123 letters (and 23 circulars). The intended destination, however was New York City. Unfortunately, the winds were not favorable. The air was still, and the craft had to ascend to 14,000 feet before air currents could propel the balloon. After five hours, Wise had only traveled 30 miles south, not east, and had to touch down in Crawfordsville. Nevertheless, the bag of mail eventually made it to New York by train. None-the-less, in 1959 the United States Postal Service issued a 7 cent stamp commemorating Wise's flight. "Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore."

August 23, 1913: Léon Letort carried out the first non-stop flight between Paris and Berlin (Johannisthal). Letort flew his monoplane, a Morane-Saulnier (Robert et Léon Morane, and Raymond Saulnier designers -- Morane-Saulnier est une société constructrice d'avions française. Société créée sous le nom de « Sociètè Anonyme des Aèroplanes Morane-Saulnier» le 10 octobre à 1911 Puteaux (Paris region)) fitted with an 80-hp Le Rhône rotary engine. The journey lasted 8 hours to go the 560 miles between the two capitals.http://web.archive.org/web/20101121054326/http://www.centennialofflight.gov/user/fact_aug.htm He returned with a friend who he had taught to fly, Millie Moore, one-time movie star. She learned to fly at Gashinka (St. Petersburg), earning Russian license # 56 on 19 November 1911. http://www.earlyaviators.com/eljuba.htm In August 1917, the Sopwith Pup, fitted with an 80-hp Le Rhône engine, was the first aircraft to land aboard a moving ship, the Royal Navy's HMS Furious.

August 23, 1939: After cocktails, German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop and Soviet Commissar for Foreign Affairs, Vyacheslav M. Molotov, signed a Treaty of Non-Aggression. The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact freed Hitler to invade Poland and let Stalin invade Finland, as well as eastern Poland, in order to protect them from the German aggressors. Secret protocols, made public many years later, assigned Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Bessarabia to be within the Soviet sphere of influence. Poland was to be partitioned along the rivers Narev, Vistula and San. Germany retained Lithuania enlarged by the inclusion of Vilnius. Just days after the signing, Germany attacked Poland, and by the end of September, both powers had stolen portions of Poland. The Nazi invasion started World War II, when Britain and France (by treaty) came to Poland's aid.

It is reported that Stalin cared not if Germany won or lost to the Western Allies. If Germany prevailed it would be too weak to attack Russia. If the West won, it would come at a high price, which would result in a socialist Europe. One may speculate on the reasons why he ignored the signs of a German buildup in Poland that presaged its invasion of Russia. Ironically, Britain would abandon Poland to Soviet domination at the end of the conflict, and send Polish soldiers who had fought with the British back to Poland where many were sent of to labour camps.

August 24, 79AD: A volcano near today's Italian city of Naples, Mount Vesuvius, erupts and in the process wipes out much of the population of the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum. The destruction did not occur in one hour or one day. The location of the cities are forgotten until the 19th Century. Today, excavation has revealed the life and times of all stratæ of Roman Society from the first century AD. http://www.vesuvioinrete.it/e_storia.htm

August 24, 1572: The slaughter of French Protestants at the hands of the Catholic forces began in Paris, as Charles IX of France attempted to rid the country of Huguenots. So started France’s fourth in a series of wars of religion, a day called the Massacre of St. Bartholomew’s Day, in which 50,000 Huguenots died in and around Paris.

The Église St. Germain-l'Auxerrois lies at the end of Pont du Neuf on the Right Bank at 2, Place du Louvre The oldest part of the current church building is the 12th century belfry, which rang out August 24, 1572, when some 3,000 Huguenots were massacred in this neighborhood. The tower bells signaled the supporters of Catherine de Médicis, Marguerite de Guise, Charles IX, and the future Henri III to launch a slaughter of these innocents (including Admiral Gaspard de Chastillon, Count de Coligny), who had been invited to celebrate the marriage of Henri de Navarre to Marguerite de Valois. Some believe that Charles' mother Catherine was told that the Huguenot Protestants were plotting a revolution and agreed to the pre-emptive plan. Some say she remains fully complicit in murder.

August 24, 1814: British troops under the command of General Robert Ross won an important victory (defeating an American force at Bladensburg, Maryland). This action would permit them to march into the City of Washington, in the Distict of Columbia, without opposition. In retaliation for the Yankee burning of the parliament building in York (Toronto), the capitol of Britain's Upper Canada, Washington's federal structures were cheerfully barbecued. Meeting no resistance from the disorganized American forces, the British roasted the White House, the US Capitol and British forces destroyed the Library of Congress, containing some 3,000 books, before a downpour extinguished the fires. Well, downpour is a mild word for what happened, it was more like a hurricane with a tornado thrown in for good measure, something of Biblical proportions. The British retreated as if smitten by divine wrath.

The British would fail to capture Baltimore, the next step in the pursuit of ultimate satisfaction. After 24 hours of bombardment, the British attack against Fort McHenry was repulsed (September 14, 1814). The representatives of the Empire returned home. A Washington lawyer who had come to Baltimore to negotiate the release of a civilian prisoner of war, witnessed the bombardment from a nearby truce ship. He wrote a poem to celebrate the American victory. The prose was later set to music. Oh say! Can you see . . . .

August 24, 2006: For the foreseeable future, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) has taken away Pluto's primary planetary status. Its new rules say a planet must, among other criteria, have cleared the neighborhood around its orbit, be the dominant object in its region of space and be at least the size of Mercury or Mars. Because Pluto's orbit overlaps Neptune's, tiny Pluto is out. The celestial body formerly known as the ninth planet will be reclassified as a dwarf planet. More dwarf planets are expected to be announced by the IAU in the coming months and years. Currently, a dozen candidates would be listed on the IAU's dwarf planet watchlist, which would keep changing as new objects are found and the existing candidates becomes better understood. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/5283250.stm

A conclusion on what to name 2003 UB313 had been delayed pending this decision, which affects whether it qualifies as a planet. It's unofficial name is Xena, the code name to be given to the first object larger than Pluto discovered by the team headed by Michael E. Brown, Chad Trujillo, and David Rabinowitz. Found on January 5, 2005 from images taken on October 21, 2003, Planet X has raised some definition questions. These are settled for now. More observations (released in October 2005) revealed that the object had a moon, S/2005 (2003 UB313) 1, nicknamed Gabrielle. More than you will possibly want to know is found HERE

The original proposal, once thought likely to be approved, would have meant that 12 planets would today be orbiting the Sun. Despite attempts to strip it of its title, Pluto would have remained planet IX. Pluto's companion Charon, the asteroid Ceres, which was once classified as a planet, and the more distant body UB 313 would have received starfield promotions. Pluto, Charon, UB 313 and other similar bodies beyond Pluto in the Kuiper Belt are different in composition and angle of orbit. http://voanews.com/english/2006-08-16-voa42.cfm -- Real Audio link found here.

The proposal was presented Wednesday (23rd) at IAU meeting being held in the Czech Republic. A vote to reject followed Thursday and the definition was narrowed. Official publication of the proceedings will take place in September. Pluto had earned planet status, when US astronomer Clyde Tombaugh discovered it in 1930, without the benefit of formal rules and well before much was known about its non-classical orbit. Ceres, a giant comet thought to be a planet when discovered in 1801, was later demoted. Charon, although smaller, is roughly the same size as companion Pluto, so they become the solar system's first set of binary dwarf planets. http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0817/p25s01-usgn.html Within 10 days of these actions, substantial protests have broken out.

August 25, 325: The first Council of Nicæa ended with adoption of the Nicene Creed. http://www.piar.hu/councils/ecum01.htm It may be assumed that the synod, having been convoked for May 20th, in the absence of the emperor held meetings of a less solemn character until June 14th. The Council was opened by Constantine the Great in solemn form. After the emperor's arrival, the sessions, properly so called, began. The Council formulated the symbol on the 19th of June, after which various matters - such as the paschal controversy (date to celebrate) - were dealt with. The sessions came to an end on 25 August. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Council_of_Nicaea

August 25, 1827: Martha Lumpkin, youngest daughter of future-governor Wilson Lumpkin (1831-35), was born. Lumpkin helped establish the Western and Atlantic Railroad. The line's southern end (terminus) lay in what was then DeKalb County, a place that would one day be within the City of Atlanta. First named Terminus, the small but growing settlement was incorporated on December 23, 1843. It was renamed Marthasville in honor of the then ex-governor's daughter.

August 25, 1864: The artillery bombardment of Atlanta stopped about as abruptly as it had begun. In the evening the Union troops, which had remained north of the city quietly withdrew from their network of trenches and field fortifications. At the same time, Confederate General A.P. Hill pushed back Union General Winfield Scott Hancock from Reams Station where his army had spent several days destroying railroad tracks. With Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia still stubbornly clinging to Petersburg, General Ulysses S. Grant had decided to cut Atlanta's vital rail links and score a win for the North in a more quick fashion.

August 25, 1944: Less than three months after D-Day, Paris was liberated from German occupation by Free French Forces under Général Jacques Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque and his 2nd Tank division. Fighting had begun on the 19th by the Resistance and continued for a few more days after the 25th, but the general German handover of the city had taken place. The next day, General DeGaulle would make his soon to be famous stroll down the Champs Élysées (Elysian fields) amid some scattered gunfire. http://www.worldwar2database.com/html/paris.htm -- La Libération de Paris On August 29th, American troops would march down the Champs Élysées, as the French capital continued to celebrate its liberation from the Nazis.

By now it seemed that everybody in France had a gun he wanted to shoot at something to prove that he had been a resister right along. We made it the next morning through the Port d'Orléans and to the Scribe Hotel, which was to be press headquarters in Paris. Paris liberated was more dangerous than the war. We entered with the Fourth Infantry Division. At street corners everything was stopped by jubilant mobs. Flowers and wine bottles pelted the Americans. German tanks looking for escape or for places to surrender dashed about. Gunfire went on sporadically all day and even the next day when DeGaulle marched down the Champs Élysées to Notre Dame Cathedral. http://www.math.metu.edu.tr/~dpierce/Crawford/KGCsaga3.html

The previous week American forces had liberated the cities of Orléans and Chartres.

Thomas West, the Second Baron WEST, fought at Crécy, an early engagement during the Hundred Years War. The Battle of Crécy, took place in northern France (Crécy-en-Ponthieu) on this day, a Saturday, in 1346. It was one of several significant events during which the English longbow triumphed over crossbowmen and heavily-armored French knights. Other, perhaps more notable engagements during the war include Poitiers (1356) and Agincourt (1415). Sir Thomas WEST was summoned to Parliament as Third Lord WEST in 1402. This Baron West (he the son of Thomas of Crécy's fame) married Joan de la WARR {variously de Laware, laWarr[e]}. She was the daughter of Roger, 3rd Lord de la WARR, her family having title and lands, the 1st Lord laWarr being Roger who died in 1324, followed by John, 2nd Lord laWarr and others.

Eleanor MOWBRAY, spouse of Roger de la WARRE, 3rd Baron de la WARR, was the daughter of John MOWBRAY, 3rd Lord MOWBRAY, who married Joan Plantagenêt {great-granddaughter of Henry III, himself the grandson of Henry II and of sterling Norman and English lineage}. The superior Norman de la Warr title, which Joan (the wife of Roger West) brought to her marriage absorbed the West Barony. Thomas and Joan's son, Reginald WEST, became the 6th Lord de la WARR. The title remained with the West family (the title only lapsed briefly during troubled times in the 16th century).

Briefly, the de la Warr title was extinguished by Parliament. Soon it was reinstated for William WEST (born-1520; died-12/30/1595). He became the First Lord Delaware, restored to nobility for his gallant conduct in Picardy. It was from Picardy (Saint-Valery-sur-Somme) that William, The Conqueror sailed; it was in Picardy that the Battle of Crécy was fought (see alsoThe Life of Henry the Fifth: ACT III, SCENE VI -- The English camp in Picardy) and where Henry VIII met François I of France at the Field of the Cloth of Gold. Henry last went to Picardy, during the late years of his reign, and this is when and where William WEST fought, restoring his family's honor.

Thomas WEST (son of William WEST, Lord Delaware) was the Second Lord Delaware (under the restitution). He married Anne KNOLLES, daughter of Sir Francis KNOLLES (1514-1596) and [Mary] Katherine CAREY. The CAREY line descends from the BOLEYN line (Thomas Earl of Wilshire and wife Elizabeth HOWARD). The HOWARD and allied MOWBRAY & de BREUSE (Briouze) lines are well-established and well-connected to key events and people in English history. For example, the only two of Henry VIII 's wives who were executed were cousins through the HOWARD family line.

Lord Thomas Leighton WEST succeeded his father as Third Lord Delaware in 1602, and in 1609 was appointed Lord Governor and captain general of Virginia. He arrived at Jamestowne on June 9, 1610, commanding a fleet of three ships, completing a voyage of three months and a half. Out of respect for his leadership and contributions to the struggling settlement, the Delaware River today bears his name. Unfortunately, Thomas West died at sea before he could do more (June 7, 1618). His death came just over two years before the Pilgrims would establish residence accidentally in New England. His brother, called Captain John WEST, immigrated to the New World and resided at West's Point, King William County, Virginia. Among other offices, he was acting Governor of Virginia (and Captain General ?) under the Stuart Crown from 1635-1636. He and his wife, Anne SHIRLEY, are the progenitors of many Americans alive today.

John WEST, JR., their son, was variously, a Major in the Virginia Forces by 1678, Senior Justice of Virginia and Colonel in the Militia in 1680. His daughter, Anne WEST (born 1670; died 1708), married Henry FOX (‘Huntington’ -– 1665-1720), the son of John FOX, a new resident, who arrived at Jamestown in 1625. Henry and Anne’s daughter (also named Ann) was the third wife of Captain Thomas CLAIBORNE and bore him 15 children before she too died in a manse called Puddlecoke (Thomas' forebear was William -- William CLAIBORNE made his settlement on Kent Island in Maryland, and because of this transgression, CLAIBORNE and the CALVERTS of Maryland were engaged in a Civil War for many years). Ann's great-granddaughter, Elizabeth CLAIBORNE, married John WALTON (brother of George WALTON, the Declaration signer). John WALTON became a representative from Augusta in the Georgia Provincial Council. In turn, his daughter married her first cousin, Robert WATKINS, (son of Thomas WATKINS, whose wife was the sister of the aforementioned John and George WALTON) – this line goes forward to granddaughter Eliza WATKINS who married Oliver A. LaROCHE, a son of Isaac LaROCHE, the second of that name in the Georgia Colony established by General Oglethorpe.

But wait, we are not done yet -- go back to Colonel John WEST, Jr. (father of Anne) -- he had several other children, one of which was a son named Thomas. Then go forward in this line five generations to Elizabeth West CAIN (born June 1811; died 6 August 1868 Griffin, Spalding County, GA), who married Robert WALKER on February 18, 1828 in Henry County, Georgia. Robert WALKER (born 10 October 1807 Danburg, Wilkes County, GA died 4 April 1882 Griffin, Spalding County, GA -- son of John William WALKER, SR. and Martha SMITH) and his bride lived on a southern plantation between the towns of Griffin and Forsyth, Georgia -- and as well they might, because they had 18 children who lived, including some twins. They turn out to be the grandparents of my grandmother Eloise who married the grandson of Eliza Watkins and Oliver A. LaRoche (also mentioned above) -- small world, eh. Without the Second Baron WEST's service in the Hundred Years War and the success of the English Longbowmen at Crécy, one has to wonder how history in general and our family connections specifically would have turned. This writeup influenced by my family history and information fromhttp://www.angelfire.com/tx2/ClendennenEhlers/West.html

August 26, 1789: The Marquis de Lafayette, most famous in the USA for his help during the War of Independence had influenced the French document called The Declaration of the Rights of Man, which was published on August 26, 1789. He had been working on a version, which reflected suggestions made by Jefferson, who was in France at the time. Lafayette furnished an unsolicited "first draft" to the French Congress, ironically just a few short days before the public storming of the Bastille.

The Representatives of the French People, formed into a National Assembly, considering ignorance, the lapse of memory or contempt of the rights of man to be the sole causes of public misfortunes and the corruption of Governments, have resolved to set forth, in a solemn Declaration, the natural, inalienable and sacred rights of man, to the end that this Declaration, constantly present to all members of the body politic, may remind them unceasingly of their rights and their duties; to the end that the acts of the legislative power and those of the executive power, since they may be at every moment [continually] compared with the aim of every political institution, may thereby be the more respected; to the end that the demands of the citizens, founded henceforth on simple and incontestable principles, may always be directed toward the
maintenance of the Constitution and the happiness of all.

Consequently, the National Assembly recognizes and declares, in the presence and under the auspices of the Supreme Being, the following rights of the man and the citizen.
Article the 1st Men are born and remain free and equal in rights ....

August 26, 1864: Those living in Atlanta awoke with the Union siege of the city apparently lifted. Empty trenches could only mean that General Sherman had given up and Atlanta was saved. Actually, Sherman had launched a new strategic drive. Part of the withdrawn Union force was deployed to guard the Western & Atlantic railroad bridge crossing the Chattahoochee River north of town. Most, however, were sent on a flanking manœuver around the west perimeter of Atlanta. The goal was to organize far enough south of Atlanta near Jonesboro so that Hood would have to pull his forces out of the city in order to meet them.

Military C-47 (based on the DC-3)

Issue date: August 27, 1941 -- This was intended for use on trans-oceanic airmail.

First Day Issue (first release) was in Philadelphia, PA, The United States Postal Service sold over 42 million of these stamps over the years.

August 27th: Today is a day o` defeat or victory, depending on your point of view. In 479BC, the Greeks defeat the Persians in two separate battles, ending the invasion. In 410AD, the three day party in Rome was over. The Visagoths had sacked the city of seven hills. In 1758 at Kingston Ontario, Colonel John Bradstreet (1714-1774) captures French Fort Frontenac, as well as nine armed vessels with 100 guns, the total opposing naval force on Lake Ontario. Commandant Pierre-Jacques Payen, Sieur de Noyan (1695-1771), capitulated in face of overwhelming British artillery. Pierre-Jacques Payen de Noyan est le véritable auteur du dénombrement des nations sauvages du Canada de 1736. In 1776, George Washington lost Long Island to the British forces commanded by General William Howe. Twenty-two years later, united Irish and French forces clash with the British army in the Battle of Castlebar, part of the Irish Rebellion of 1798. In 1813, Napoleon would defeat the Austrians, Russians and Prussians at the Battle of Dresden. The year 1828 saw the Empire of Russia defeat the Turkish Empire at Akhalzic; while in 1900 the British Empire defeats the Boers (Dutch heritage) at Bergendal. Just 4 years earlier the shortest war in world history was fought (28 minutes on this day in 1896) between Britain and Kingdom of Zanzibar. Providentially, on August 27, 1928, the Kellogg-Briand Pact, a treaty outlawing war signed by sixty nations, was established bringing world peace.

Georgia was hit by two hurricanes on this date (1881 and 1893). It experienced considerable loss of life when the barrier islands were inundated. The 1893 storm, as intense as the Galveston event (1900), caused the third greatest loss of life (Galveston was first). It was a Cape Verde type storm, tracked back to the African coast on the 15th of August. The storm made landfall as a major hurricane southwest of Tybee Island, the eye (and weaker side) passing just east of St. Simons and Jekyll Islands.

In 1965 on this date the Beatles met Elvis for the first and only time; later that night they partied with the Byrds in the Hollywood Hills. The "Fab 4" were at the height of their game, yet in three days played the last public performance in the US (or anywhere). Exactly two years later, the Beatles manager, who had steered the group to its international fame, died of a drug overdose.

August 28, 1565:St. Augustine Florida, oldest city in the USA, was named, although it would not be found for a few more days. It was christened for the feast day celebrating Augustine, who died on August 28, 430AD at Hippo (today the city of Annaba, Algeria), shortly before the city was taken by the Vandals. Among Augustine's many writings was Confessions, an immensely popular book which has been read, meditated upon and imitated by many generations. One of his greatest literary works, The City of God [ De Civitate Dei ], was occasioned by the sacking of Rome by armies in the year 410 by the Visagoths. Its fundamental thesis is that the ultimate importance of a city is not measured by its temporal significance, for in fact there are only two cities that really matter. http://www.osa-west.org/saintaugustine.htmlseehttp://www.ccel.org/a/augustine/ -- a great collection of links reference material about Saint Augustine of Hippo.

The Vandals consisted of migrating germanic tribes (origin in dispute) that eventually settled in southern Spain and northern Africa in the 5th Century AD, under pressure from migrations of other invaders like the Huns. Much like the Saxons in Britain, the Vandals were invited into these two areas, and were even seen as liberators from a corrupt regime. They eventually overcame their erstwhile allies. Unlike the Saxons, the Vandals presence as a political and military force did not last and they blended into the population. By the early 6th century they were forced also to leave Africa by moslem invaders from the middle-east.

August 28, 1749: If one had to pick a German writer with as much influence as Augustine, surely the author of Faustus would be among the top choices. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (d.1832), the master spirit of the German people, was born this date at Frankfurt am Main. Scientist, philosopher, novelist and critic as well as lyric, dramatist and epic poet, Goethe was the leading figure of late 18th Century early 19th-Century Europe after Napoléon. One could make a serious argument about the most influential Russian, too. Leo Tolstoy (d.1910), Russian novelist, was born near Tula on August 28, 1828. His works include War and Peace. History would be an excellent thing if only it were true. -- It is amazing how complete is the delusion that beauty is goodness.

Tula is the capital of Tula Oblast, western Russia, located in a rich iron-mining region. A notable structure is a well-preserved kremlin (citadel), begun in the early 16th century. Tula was became an important fortress of the Grand Duchy of Moscow. In 1712 Peter the Great established the first arms factory in Russia there. Near the city is Yasnaya Polyana, the estate (now a museum) and burial place of Leo Tolstoy. http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Tula,-Russia

In the western hemisphere, Tula was the capital city of the Toltec Empire. The ruins can still be found forty miles northwest of present day Mexico City, situated in the Mexican state of Hidalgo, and lies near the modern town of Tula de Allende. The Toltec city is located on a natural promontory (citadel) with steep slopes surrounding the city on three sides. http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/archaeology/sites/meso_america/tula.html

Frankfurt am Main (Goethe's birthplace), once the capital of the Holy Roman Empire, sits about 30 miles west of Mainz (Mayence) the Roman capital of upper Germany (Germaniæ Superior), when Frankfurt-today the principal city in a region called Hesse-was only just a collective of farms (Nida). Mainz became the capital city of the Roman province, Germaniæ Superior on October 27, 90AD. Legion 22 relieved the local legion about 10 years later. It occupied the fortification there until the middle of the 4th century. A portion of the castle of Weisenau (2km south and east of the city-centre of Mainz) was developed from a Celtic predecessor. Also, the local Celtic population is well recognized, as living among the Romans as part of regular society, and not as slaves. The tombstone of the Celt Blussus and his family is a good example for the romanization of the Celtic peoples of the La Tene cultural heritage.

The tribe of the Chatten were united by custom and language, when they first entered the west into Hesse from central Europe in about the 5th century BC. Initial contact was with Celtic tribes, who were either absorbed or pushed further westward. The initial clash with the Romans took place in Provence during the second century BC. From that time forward these peoples, and those that followed (Franks, etc.), were a continual source of harassment at the Roman frontiers. Eventually, these Germanic tribes would occupy all of the western Roman Empire. A few of the Chatten, migrated further, not desiring to live at first under the watchful Roman eye and later in a crowded Europe. These lionhearts moved on, first to the lowlands of the Rhine, then to the British Isles, becoming the Keith Clan of Scotland. More HERE about those who stayed in Germany.

August 29th: On this date in 708, the Japanese minted copper coins for the first time. Apocryphally, on this date in 1949, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics tests its first atomic bomb, known as First Lightning (or Joe 1), at Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan, one of its republics.

Both the Eastern Orthodox and Byzantine Christian denominations, as well as the Roman Catholic Church commemorate the beheading of John the Baptist with a feast day (a martyrdom that makes him a saint). The head was transferred to Comana of Cappadocia during a period of Muslim raids (about 820AD) and it was hidden in the ground during the period of iconoclastic persecution. When the veneration of icons was restored in 850, Patriarch Ignatius of Constantinople (847-857) saw in a vision the place where the head of St John had been hidden. The patriarch told the emperor Michael III, who then sent a delegation to Comana, where the head soon was found. Afterwards, the head was again transferred to Constantinople, and on May 25 it was placed in a church at the court to rest until its destruction. Whereupon the location becomes a matter of tradition, rather than fact. Muslim tradition maintains that the head of John the Baptist was interred in the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus. Pope John Paul II visited the tomb of John the Baptist at the Umayyad Mosque during his visit to Syria in April, 2001.

August 30, 1919: Born in Nashville this day was Kitty Wells (Muriel Ellen Deason), the Queen of Country Music:It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels (number 1 in 1952-her first, which was a response to "The Wild Side of Life" by Hank Thompson), Jealousy, Payin’ for that Back Street Affair (1953, an answer song to Webb Pierce's "Back Street Affair"), I Don’t Want Your Money-I Want Your Time, Makin’ Believe (1955), I Can't Stop Loving You (1958), Searching (1956), Heartbreak USA (1961), We’ll Stick Together, among her songs she and others made famous. She received the Country Music Association's Hall of Fame award in 1976. In 1991, during the Grammy show, Ms. Wells was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award. In her company; Bob Dylan, Marian Anderson and John Lennon. She was the first female country singer to receive the award, and at that time only the third country performer overall, following Roy Acuff and Hank Williams into history. Gospel singer, songwriter, TV host and legend retired that same year with her farewell Nashville performance (2001).

She died on July 16, 2012, a month short of her 93rd Birthday. A Nashville native in a town of transplants, Ms. Wells paved the way for country-stars like Loretta Lynn, Tammy Wynette and others. Some of her friends and fans gathered at the Ernest Tubb Record Shop's Texas Troubadour Theatre, to honor her with song and word. The event, closed to the public, was broadcast on WSM (Eddie Stubbs hosted-AM 650). Makin' Believe.

At the end of August, Atlanta's fate was signed, sealed and almost fully delivered: On August 30, 1864, after a day of destroying the Atlanta & West Point Railroad, Sherman marched his army to the southeast in the direction of the Macon & Western Railroad line at Jonesboro GA, well south of the Atlanta city centre -- just about a day's ride by carriage. Confederate commander John Bell Hood still believed that the general's strategy would be to position forces for an attack of Atlanta from the south. Never-the-less, as a precaution, Hood had prepared an order for two Confederate corps to approach Jonesboro (from the north). That night, Hood learned that Union forces were within two miles of the Macon railroad line. Consequently, he ordered General Hardee to march the two corps through the night to turn the Union force back. Not knowing how prophetic his words were, Hood told Hardee that the fate of Atlanta depended on his success. Only two days of battle remained before ancient Terminus falls. Interestingly (and one might say sadly), fifteen years later to the day (August 30, 1879), John Bell Hood, former general and commander of Confederate forces during the final stages of Sherman's Atlanta Campaign, died of yellow fever in New Orleans at age 48.

August 31, 1864: In a day where confusion became the order of the day, coupled with poor command decisions, Southern forces move forward just after 3:00 p.m. The Battle of Jonesboro was underway. In less than an hour, the South suffered 1,400 casualties; more became prisoners. Hood ordered General Stephen Lee to withdraw from Jonesboro back to Atlanta. Hood had concluded that he could no longer defend Atlanta, so he began planning his tactical move northward. Now just one more day of intense fighting remained in and about Atlanta. Moreover, Sherman now would be positioned to move south and east toward's Georgia's Capital city of Milledgeville and its arsenal.

Also of note: Tilman Perkins (CSA) was captured at Jonesboro (August 30th). He had been injured at one of the battles around Atlanta a few weeks earlier. At War's start he was a volunteer private who was elected to the position of second lieutenant in 1863. After an exchange in late September he rejoined the fight. He surrendered at the end of the War at Augusta, Georgia and headed for home. http://www.izzy.net/~michaelg/65-k.htm Tilman married Emily Frances Stephens, whose father did not survive in battle. On December 26, 1863, Littleton Meeks Stephens, had passed away from wounds received at the Battle of Dalton. You'll find his marker there today, under the name Middleton Stephens. Tilman lived into the 20th Century. His marker and that of his wife may be found at Harmony Baptist Church in Banks County GA. One of their daughters married Freeman Melvin Cash (whose father had survived the War -- a Joe Brown's Pike volunteer). Littleton was named for a famous NE GA preacher named Littleton Meeks (a missionary to the Cherokee). Littleton Meeks Cash, a great uncle to Freeman, was also a Private of the 65th Regiment of Georgia (Capt. Grant's Co. E, Inf. Battalion, Smiths Legion Georgia Partisan Rangers).

August 31, 651AD: When King Oswald of Bernicia called upon his old educational institution, the great Scottish monastery of Iona, to provide him with a spiritual guide who would help him convert his people to Christianity, the monks asked Saint Aidan to oblige. Aidan, an Irish bishop, gave up his see on Scattery Island in order to undertake this post. In 635 he took up residence at his new episcopal see, Lindisfarne (alias Holy Island), off the Northumberland coast, a few miles north of Oswald's rocky fortress of Bamburgh. For the next 16 years, until his death this day in 651, he worked to spread the kingdom, which has no borders, in the language of the Scots.

Well did Bede say: Churches were built in several places; the people joyfully flocked together to hear the Word; possessions and lands were given of the King's bounty to build monasteries; the younger English were, by their Scottish masters, instructed; and there were greater care and attention bestowed upon the rules and observance of regular discipline.

August 31, 1886 - the Holy City is rocked: The great Charleston earthquake, which devastated that port city in South Carolina, was felt even across northern Georgia. In downtown Atlanta, the shaking of buildings caused citizens to flee to the streets out of fear that the structures would collapse. Near Augusta, Gertrude Thomas witnessed the event, as she vividly recorded in her journal ten days later:

. . . Just then a noise was heard right above my head as if a hundred rats might have been scampering. 'Look out for the ceiling' said Mr. Thomas, 'run here,' as he rushed into the bed room which is not plastered and exclaimed, 'It is an earthquake.' As that one horrible word, so portent with evil was uttered, as I glanced in his face, as I took in the meaning of the word some impulse prompted me to rush out into the front piazza where I met Turner [her son] just escaping from the parlour. I do not think either of us uttered one word. Together we stood while the house shook and reeled like a drunken man, and still that awful, rushing, roaring sound is heard. I look, I see the piazzi sway to and fro (I seem to feel it now) and then as a man flies for his life I grasp Turner, and hand in hand we rush down the step and out into the front yard. I feel the earth sway to and fro. Oh God! the horror of the moment! Just then I expect the earth to heave and swallow us up. Has the day of judgement come? And as I sway with that awful, horrible motion, far away from the distant coloured church is heard the most pathetic, mournful wail I ever listened to. I looked up for one instant. I expected the heavens to fall. Just where that day the lovely clouds floated the stars now shone brightly. The sight steadied me thank God. Turner and I had separated. He looked toward the house expecting it to fall. I had just time to glance toward the sky when another shock came. I heard Mr. Thomas say 'support your mother Turner.' I felt my husband's arms around me. I was conscious that I was falling. I was conscious of an intolerable pain in my back, and an awful nausea, and from that time through the successive shocks I was sick like unto death . . . .

The scrolling digital display shows Universal Time (UTC), which is 5 hours in winter and 4 hours in summer ahead of Eastern and EDT, respectively. So, the summer solstice took place on Friday, June 21, 2013 at 0504 Universal time, which was 1:04 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time and 11:04 P.M. on the 20th, if you were in Casper Wyoming (Mountain Time) at the time.